The present invention relates to transducer arrays. In particular, a multi-dimensional transducer array with non-uniform kerf widths is provided.
Transducers are used to convert between electrical charge and acoustic energy. Medical imaging techniques utilize transducers to generate images of internal organs and physiology of humans as well as animals. For example, the acoustic energy is transmitted into a patient and echoes are received in response to the transmission. Electrical signals generated in response to the acoustic echoes are used to generate an image. Ultrasound machines may use phased transducer arrays to generate and receive these sound waves to create two, three, or four dimensional images, such as an image of a fetus or a beating heart.
In manufacturing transducer arrays, a plurality of elements are typically formed and aligned in a one dimensional or multi-dimensional arrangement. Most transducer arrays have acoustic elements that rely on dicing of a piezoelectric ceramic layer to obtain a favorable aspect ratio for “clean” resonance modes, i.e., minimizing lateral or other unwanted modes. The elements are formed by dicing kerfs into transducer material where the kerf widths typically are the same between the respective elements. Dicing may be either from the front side of the transducer material or from the back side of the transducer material.